The old us

Naija Poetry

Biography: Naija Poetry

Naija Poetry's Profile

Friday 3 July 2020

The old us

Losing control, my temper is boiling,
Reports of our failed work our country
Reflecting on our generations.
We look for whom to blame and point fingers to,
Maybe our colonial masters?,
Or our leaders who indeed fail mostly in their duties.
Extempting ourselves, we are blameless, so we think
Forgetting the fact that we all make up this country.

Oh where is our patriotic spirit?,
Where is our will to fight injustice, corruption and evil?
Where is our firm stand and belief for a better country?
Where is our covenant of which we swear daily,
Through the national anthem we sing joyful and once proudly?
Where is that dignity we once carried,
Not among ourselves only but world-wide?
Has all this good virtues be sold for gold and silver,
Have we silenced them ourselves with our own hands because of greed?
Alas I tell thee it shows like we have,
It shows that we have lost our vision,
Our 2020 vision to make this country one of the best in the world.
We lose our morals and values,
Our culture and traditions have all gone to waste.
We then teach that generation after us,
Beliefs, morals and values that are so decayed.
I sadly look up our foundation, and the building which rest upon it,
They are all in a sorry state.
My heart weeps for the future generations,
Our leaders are blind and the followers have also gradually become blind themselves.
I weep as I see the international news,
Our image and who we gave become world wide have been smeared with dung.
We borrow a lot of money from other countries,
We pile our debts for future generations.
We mortgage our future, leaving them as slaves and puppets to other countries.
This indeed concerns me and gives me sleepless night,
Gone are the days when men used to be men.
When men came back to tell their historical achievements,
When men where fit and fought tirelessly for justice,
When men trained their young men to become capable and better replacement in their stead,
When women gave their daughters a perfect home training,
Teaching them how to speak and act like a princess.
Gone are the days men boast about their barns filled with yams,
Keg filled with palm wine,
Lands filled with crops and food that he worked with his hands.
Those days when men took up the title of of ogbu agu,
Not for the sake of the name or the money they paid to get it, but strived with every drop of their sweat and earned it.
Gone are the days when women were indeed wealthy, nwaanyi bu aku as spoken in my dialect.
Gone are the days where men respected their wives and loved them,
And the wives honored their husbands.
Those days when women gather their husbands wealth and protect them,
To the extent they are mockingly called okpa aku erieri.
Those days when we cherished education,
When Nwa tisha or onye nkuzi had a lot of respect.
When men gathered in the village square together with the villagers to make decisions.
Not only on trivial matters,
But also in political matters.
When one child or children never belonged to one person,
Or the correction and direction were solely the parents' burden.
When a child's failure was the whole village shame,
And their success was the whole village pride.
What happened to old us?
Those times of old when children could run around under the moon at night with no fear of kidnapping
When our daughters could freely move about
with only breast and waist clothes,
When they were safe to go to the stream and have their bath, without the parents being bothered.
Oh oh how has the mighty fallen!!!,
We gradually sold what precious jewels we had,
We sold our conscience, righteousness and dignity.
Lost in corruption, ravaged with destruction, strife and violence,
We lost our honor and yet we don't feel an atom of guilt.
Work until us,woe,for we are blind and deaf,
Fallen as low as animals we have failed to control our desires.
Beastliness and crudeness have become our motto,
Like Sodom and Gomorrah we have become,
Daily blood flows like a river, people mourn and cry.
Yet we have become used to that cry,
Oh great and mighty people what have thee become?
People who are where never better than us
Now judge our case and mock us.
We create an environment for ourselves where we hate our origin,
We seek for green pasture elsewhere.
The go to distant land and plant our seeds,
For a moment we feel safe and our heads increase inside like a balloon filled with air.
Fleeing was the best idea, men now beat their chest and call themselves men,
With the number of times they travel abroad,
The number of wives and wealth they amass,
Number of hoes they slept with, number of men they murdered.
Life has seized to have a meaning to us,
Like alligators in the fouled water, we bite ourselves.
We create a future for our generations where they are no longer comfortable in their skin,
The green pasture where we run to, did we find peace?
Alas turn on the network news and see,
Daily we drop like chickens and no one Bates an eye or flinch a muscle.
We have become nothing but mockery,
We have become like Israel when Chukwu, God
Sent them into exile and allowed their enemies to plunder and use them.
For how long are we going to sleep?
For how long are we going to let our country be headless?
Now the promise of a better country have become a mirage,
And as it ages we deny.
The labour of our past heroes we indeed have made in vain,
The truth have become a lie in this country,
And the like since it has been constant have become the truth.
The minority we speak are eliminated,
We live our lives constantly like a chess game.
Gambled by our leaders and sold by ourselves,
We shoot ourselves on our feet.
Our daughters have become contentious and fretful,
Opening their legs to all have become another form of hustling.
As I drove down the road at night as I returned from work,
My heart bleed,as I saw countless potentials being wasted.
Our sons,oh our sons have lost the pride of being a man,
They now become cultists, kidnapping has become our daily bread.
They now become thugs and destroy their soul and conscience,
Internet fraudster has become attractive and fantastic,
Rape and drug use has become our young men medal of Honor.
Clubs and party houses have replaced the house of our Chi or Chukwu,God.
Fathers now abuse their girl child,
And mother's their sons.
We pervert the way we were created,
The way we were taught by our ancestors,
We have abandoned and fallen into an abyss.
Who will save us?,
We have fallen deep into darkness,
who will shine forth light upon us?

As I cry bitterly and lament, of our terrible we have become
I remember the story of Elijah.
Oh that story gave me strength,
When Elijah felt he was the only one who worshipped God,
We begged the lord to take his life just like how I was up until I remembered the story.
And it turned out that a massive number of men still followed Jehovah the God of Israel,
This story made me believe there are people like me somewhere,
People I have never met, people yearning for change.
Who persevere and keep teaching their children and generations the old commandments,
We teach them what our honor is and will always be.
We inscribe in their heart the meaning of our national anthem and pledge.
Oh i leaped for joy to this thought,
My heart felt at peace and the burden on my shoulder felt lifted.
Now I bowed my head and kept praying,
Not in agony now but in support and goodness.
For as long as we have people like that,
Though the change tarry or linger
We will definitely see light at the end of the tunnel.
Don't lose hope, don't give up,
Let us join our hands and build this country back to its former glory.
The light shineth and darkness comprehended it not,
Let us return this country, our country, to one we are going to be proud of.
Let's return the old us, the one that was and will not bend in the face of evil.
Let us the righteous men, the just and upright,
No matter how little we maybe,
Stamp out this evil guest who has caused us pain for ages past.
For indeed I tell you, listen with intent,
Do not wait for a saviour from above
For we are our saviors.
One great country,
Built upon peace and unity.

Naija Poetry's Profile

The old us

Trending Now

Most Rated Poems

Recently Joined

FPG Feeds